Physical and mental health related problems associated with obesity

From Conservapedia

From a medical perspective, an obese person has accumulated enough body fat that it can have a negative effect on their health. If a person's weight is at least 20% higher than it should be, he/she is generally considered obese. If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is between 25 and 29.9 you are considered overweight.[1] If your BMI is 30 or over you are considered obese.[2] The term obese can also used in a more general way to indicate someone who is overweight.[3]

Causes of obesity

Two of the major risk factors for becoming obese according to the Mayo Clinic are poor dietary choices and inactivity.[4] Most individuals are overweight due to their dietary and exercise habits.[5]

Symptoms of obesity and excess weight

Some of the medical conditions associated with obesity include: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, arthritis, cancer, sleep apnea, reproductive problems in women and varicose veins.[6] According to the National Cancer Institute, "obesity is associated with increased risks of cancers of the esophagus, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium (the lining of the uterus), colon and rectum, kidney, pancreas, thyroid, gallbladder, and possibly other cancer types."[7] In addition, medical science research indicates that excess weight impairs brain function.[8]

Negative effects on lung function/respiratory disease: According to Harvard University's School of Public Health: "Excess weight impairs respiratory function via mechanical and metabolic pathways. The accumulation of abdominal fat, for example, may limit the descent of the diaphragm, and in turn, lung expansion, while the accumulation of visceral fat can reduce the flexibility of the chest wall, sap respiratory muscle strength, and narrow airways in the lungs. Cytokines generated by the low-grade inflammatory state that accompanies obesity may also impede lung function."[12]

Feet/ankles problems: According to Stuart D. Miller, M.D.: "It is important for the public to know that obesity isn't just an aesthetic issue, but a contributing cause of musculoskeletal health problems, specifically with the feet and ankles."[14]

Lower levels of balance recovery and increased risk of falls: In her thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, entitled A modeling investigation of obesity and balance recovery, Sara Louise Matrangola writes in the abstract: "Obesity is associated with an increased risk of falls and subsequent injury. Previous studies have shown weight loss and strength training to be beneficial to balance, but knowing which is more beneficial will allow researchers to design interventions to maximize the benefits in terms of balance and reducing risk of falls."[15]

Obesity and its negative impact on intelligence

On October 15, 2006, The Telegraph reported in an article entitled The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists:

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It is bad for your blood pressure, knocks years off your life and is a strain on your heart. Now scientists have discovered that gaining weight lowers your intelligence.

The findings follow last week's government figures that show Britain as the "fat man" of Europe, with nearly a quarter of adults and more than 14 per cent of children under 16 classified as obese.

The new five-year study of more than 2,200 adults claims to have found a link between obesity and the decline in a person's cognitive function. The research, conducted by French scientists, which is published in this month's Neurology journal, involved men and women aged between 32 and 62 taking four mental ability tests that were then repeated five years later.

The researchers found that people with a Body Mass Index – a measure of body fat – of 20 or less could recall 56 per cent of words in a vocabulary test, while those who were obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher, could remember only 44 per cent.[19]

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Obesity and increases in cancer risk

The South China Morning Post reported that according the British medical journal Lancet:

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Each five kg/m {+2} increase in BMI was clearly linked with higher risk of cancers of the uterus (62 per cent increase), gallbladder (31 per cent), kidney (25 per cent), cervix (10 per cent), thyroid (9 per cent), and leukemia (9 per cent)," said the statement. Higher BMI also increased the risk of cancer of the liver (19 per cent), colon (10 per cent), ovaries (9 per cent) and breast (5 per cent), although the effect on these types was influenced by other factors."[20]

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According to Cancer Risk UK, "More than one in three people in the UK will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime".[21]

Obesity and Alzheimer's disease

A PET scan of the brain of an individual with Alzheimer's disease reveals a loss of function in the temporal lobe.

In 2005, WebMD published:

“

People with diabetes are at particularly high risk of Alzheimer's disease. But now there's strong evidence that people with high insulin levels -- long before they get diabetes -- already are on the road to Alzheimer's disease.

As the body becomes more and more overweight, it becomes more and more resistant to the blood-sugar-lowering effects of insulin. To counter this insulin resistance, the body keeps making more insulin...

Insulin Triggers Amyloid Buildup

High insulin levels are known to cause blood vessels to become inflamed....

One dangerous effect of this insulin-caused brain inflammation is increased brain levels of beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is the twisted protein that's the main ingredient in the sticky plaques that clog the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.

"What was striking was the magnitude of the effect," Craft tells WebMD. "Inflammation can be a result of amyloid elevations but can also create an environment in which amyloid is made more readily. Inflammation can be both the result and cause of amyloid production."[22]

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A 2009 health report on a medical study indicated:

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They compared the brain scan of 94 people in their 70s who were obese & overweight. They found that the obese had lost tissue in the frontal & temporal lobes areas critical for planning & memory. Declines were also seen in areas used for attention & executive functions, long term memory & movement

A neurologist Professor Paul Thompson said, “That's a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer's and other diseases that attack the brain. But you can greatly reduce your risk for Alzheimer's if you can eat healthily and keep your weight under control.”M[23]

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Health effects of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease is "characterised by loss of neurons and synapses in the cerebral cortex and certain subcortical regions. This loss results in gross atrophy of the affected regions, including degeneration in the temporal lobe and parietal lobe, and parts of the frontal cortex and cingulate gyrus.[24] Some of the primary symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are: memory problems, mood swings, emotional outbursts, brain stem damage which impairs function in the heart, lungs plus causes disruption of various other bodily processes.[25]

An abstract of the medical study entitled Measures to Assess the Noncognitive Symptoms of Dementia in the Primary Care Setting by Brent P. Forester, M.D. and Thomas E. Oxman, M.D. inidcated "Noncognitive symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias include psychosis, mood disturbances, personality changes, agitation, aggression, pacing, wandering, altered sexual behavior, changed sleep patterns, and appetite disturbances. These noncognitive symptoms of dementia are common, disabling to both the patient and the caregiver, and costly."[26]

Obesity, Alzheimer's disease and prevention

Weili Xu, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, declared: "Our results contribute to the growing evidence that controlling body weight or losing weight in middle age could reduce your risk of dementia".[28]

Increased morbidity risk

On September 2, 2014, the New York Times wrote concerning Britain:

“

In high-income countries, excess weight is the third-leading risk factor in death. The importance of addressing this was brought home again last month with the publication of a new study and editorial, also in The Lancet. The work looked at 22 different cancers in Britain and their association with body mass index (B.M.I.), a simple but more effective measure of obesity than weight alone. The conclusions of the study, which involved a whopping 5.24 million people, were both notable and not entirely unexpected: When adjusted for factors like age and smoking, a higher B.M.I. was associated with a large increase in risk of cancers of the uterus, kidney, gallbladder, and liver, and smaller risk increases for at least six other types of cancer.[29]